United States (US) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng concluded talks in New York on Sunday, with the US side proposing a new AI safety notification mechanism for President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to consider at their summit in Washington on September 24 and 25. Bessent told reporters that the two sides discussed setting up a new US-China AI dialogue, with a particular emphasis on national security concerns and a notification system covering AI-related incidents that rise to a national security level. “We think that, just like with any cross-border activity, that moving from opaque to more transparency between the number one and the number two AI powers in the world is very important,” he said after the talks, which were held at JPMorgan Chase headquarters. Trump and Xi first discussed potential consultations on AI development in Beijing in May, but that forum was never formalised, and the New York meeting was the first serious attempt to give the idea a concrete shape.
China’s response to the proposal remained unclear. A readout from the Xinhua news agency only briefly acknowledged that both sides had spoken about AI, describing the exchanges as frank, in-depth, and constructive on key economic and trade issues, including the implementation of agreements reached in earlier rounds of consultations. Vice Premier He and chief trade negotiator Li Chenggang left the talks without speaking to the media. George Chen, partner and chair of the Digital Practice at The Asia Group consultancy in Hong Kong, said the fact that both sides agreed to continue the dialogue was significant, and expected future sessions to tackle more sensitive topics such as the weaponisation of AI, principles for AI safety, protection of critical infrastructure, and cyberattack prevention. He also cautioned that prospects for cooperation remain limited because of low trust between the two countries and Beijing’s perception that Washington seeks to contain China’s AI development. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said American export controls on advanced AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment were not on the agenda for the AI mechanism discussions, and that the weekend’s talks were meant to prepare the groundwork for what he called a successful summit between the two leaders.
The New York meeting also covered trade, including plans to operationalise a process agreed in May under which each side would identify potential tariff cuts on non-strategic goods through a mechanism called the Board of Trade. Greer did not name specific products, but said he wanted a relatively small subset of non-sensitive American and Chinese goods that could be traded in a balanced way. He suggested Chinese candidates could include consumer goods and low-tech items, while American exports could include energy, agricultural goods, and medical devices. Neither Bessent nor Greer reported progress on improving the flow of critical minerals to US companies, which American officials have described as insufficient despite earlier Chinese commitments, and there was no update on other issues left unresolved after the May summit, including Chinese pledges to raise purchases of US agricultural goods by $17 billion a year and to buy more than 200 Boeing aircraft.
The AI proposal also drew attention from lawmakers in Washington. US Representative Ro Khanna, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the US and the Chinese Communist Party, said Trump and Xi must reach a deal covering AI safety, with one core principle being a ban on recursive self-improving AI and another being safeguards to stop the technology from being misused for biological or nuclear weapons. Trump has so far resisted calls to slow AI development, arguing that doing so would help China catch up to American companies. China’s Ministry of Commerce said He would lead a delegation of Chinese companies to the US for economic and trade consultations ahead of the summit, mirroring the group of American chief executives Trump took to Beijing in May, while Trump separately expressed openness to Chinese automakers building factories in the US, a prospect that American auto industry groups urged him to reject on national security grounds. Taken together, the talks pointed to incremental progress rather than breakthroughs in a delicate relationship that carries major consequences for the global economy.
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